The next frontier of the #METOO MOVEMENT

A new film, These Are My Hours, has been called “most cinematic birth doc ever”, offers the first cinematic look at birth in the #MeToo era.

It’s coming to Geelong on Thursday October 18 and is presented by Suburban Sandcastles, an organisation committed to illuminating the issues of our time through film and conversation.

They argue birth is plausibly the next frontier of the #MeToo movement.

These Are My Hours is the only film shot entirely during a woman’s labour and told from the woman’s perspective.

Producer Gracey Nagle said that “#MeToo is about the abuse of women, and nowhere in American society is that more pervasive and insidious than in the authoritarian system which dictates how and where women give birth”.

Australia also has challenges in its maternity system, with many women suffering severe birth trauma, experiencing PTSD, PND and other challenges.

Despite unanimous, overwhelmingly positive reviews, These Are My Hours has now been rejected from twenty-five consecutive festivals.

Even though a documentary about birth has not found success on the festival circuit, the topic is a hot trend online and in other media.

The appetite for understanding the birth experience more is clearly great, and These Are My Hours can be the catalyst for advancing this conversation.

These Are My Hours is on at Courthouse Youth Arts on October 18 at an event that features nourishing food, stallholders and exhibitors before the film, when doors open at 6pm, and following the film there will be a Q&A panel featuring midwives from The Birth House in Geelong, and doula Dasha Clarke.

Tickets are available at suburbansandcastles.com.